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NASCAR stars, more ALMS and Grand-Am merger details to highlight three-day Roar Before the Rolex

January 1, 2013

The annual three-day Roar Before the 24 test session for the Grand-Am Series at Daytona begins on Friday. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Steven Cole Smith

Typically, the Roar Before the Rolex -- a three-day practice session at Daytona International Speedway in preparation for the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race -- is just a way for teams to shake off the rust before Grand-Am's biggest race of the year.

But this season, the Roar -- scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday -- carries more weight. Friday at noon ET, officials from Grand-Am and its rival, the American Le Mans Series, will host a press conference. Beginning at Daytona in 2014, the two series will combine under the leadership of NASCAR-backed Grand-Am, and the press conference will begin the process of determining what cars and what classes will be raced in the new single series.

The conference will, according to press releases, outline the “conceptual class structure of the unified North American Sports Car Series for 2014.” It will, officials say, be something of a work in progress, given the difficulty of dovetailing the two series' class structure, and deciding what cars will race in which class. Autoweek.com will have immediate coverage and analysis.

On track, the other big story for this season in Grand-Am is the new GX class. It would be an exaggeration to say it was formed solely to give series loyalist Mazda a place to race, but with the elimination of the rotary engine and the RX-8 from the U.S. product lineup, the company had to turn to its redesigned four-door Mazda 6 for a vehicle. Mazda's lead team, SpeedSource, has been working around the clock to get not only the car but the new diesel engine being developed for Grand-Am and ALMS up to speed.

Presently, there are six entries listed for the Roar in the GX class -- three Mazda 6s, two Porsche Caymans and a Lotus Evora. There is one still-eligible RX-8 entered in the GT class by Racers Edge motorsports.

Indeed, Mazda is taking a hit in team participation this year -- the two-car Team Sahlen, longtime Mazda racers, have moved up to the Daytona Prototype class with a pair of BMW-powered Rileys, the same engine and chassis combination fielded by the season championship Ganassi Racing team, which will have two entries at practice -- one with Charlie Kimball, Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas; the other with Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Joey Hand and Jamie McMurray, who is fresh from a winning weekend at the Daytona Kartweek.

Mazda is also missing the Dempsey Racing teams, led by actor Patrick Dempsey -- at present they have no plans for Grand-Am this season, but will likely race in ALMS.

NASCAR stars, a staple of the Rolex 24, are at present represented by McMurray, Montoya, Nelson Piquet Jr. (with the Action Express DP car), Michael Waltrip and Clint Bowyer (in Waltrip's Ferrari 458 GT entry) and Marcus Ambrose, who will be testing with defending champion Michael Shank Racing. Ambrose will likely team with John Pew, replacing injured regular Ozz Negri. Shank has not announced the rest of its Rolex 24 lineup, but A.J. Allmendinger, who was on the winning team in 2012, is expected to return. One NASCAR driver who won't is Jimmie Johnson, who raced several years with the Gainsco team -- that team will field regulars Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney, along with co-drivers Darren Law and Memo Gidley. Also not on the test list is rock star Brian Johnson of AC/DC, though the number 50 DP car he raced last year returns.

Total count for the Roar entry list so far: 16 prototypes, 35 GT cars, 6 GX cars. Though it isn't yet on the official roster, Doran Racing has just announced that it will be back in the DP class in a Ford Dallara with Paul Tracy, Colin Braun, Jon Bennett and Jim Lowe.

Other points of interest:

--The Bacardi-backed RumBum team, which has raced BMWs and Porsches the past two years in the Continental Tire series, will be trying out an Audi R8 at the Roar, as will Alex Job Racing. Job will also field a Porsche GT3.

--The departure of the Flying Lizard team has left some drivers scrambling -- one who has found a seat for the Rolex 24 is Porsche ace Patrick Long, in one of the two Park Place Motorsports Porsche GT3s, alongside Spencer Pumpelly.

--Though Kevin Buckler's The Racers Group is hard at work on its Aston-Martin factory-backed program, Buckler has three Porsche GT3s entered, including one that will be rented out by longtime prototype entrant Tracy Krohn.

--Wayne Taylor Racing has a press conference scheduled for Thursday announcing a new sponsor to replace SunTrust on the team Chevrolet Corvette, and a new driver to team with Max Angelelli and Jordan Taylor. Jordan's brother, Ricky, is entered in the Spirit of Daytona Corvette.

--Though Chrysler is putting its money into the ALMS with factory Vipers, at least one Viper will be at the Roar -- a Vehicle Technologies entry with Doug Peterson, Jan Heylen and Tony Ave.

--Peter Baron's Starworks team has two Ford-Rileys entered in GP -- one with a driver lineup still to be announced, the other with Ryan Dalziel, Allan McNish, Sebastien Bourdais and Venezulean money man Alex Popow.